Telenursing Essay

Imagine the ability to obtain healthcare services from almost anywhere in the world where you have access to a phone or computer. Now, imagine being able to provide nursing assessments, diagnosis, treatments, and recommendations to your patients from your home to almost anywhere in the world. Lauren Stokowski (2008) noted in her article that one fourth of the United States has rural residents. That number may appear small in comparison to the urban residences; however, rural residents have a tendency to to have “higher poverty rates, larger percentage of elderly, and tend to be in poorer health”. Could telenursing be a solution?

With the help of telehealth and telenursing, overall healthcare costs can be reduced, especially for those patients

Telehealth nurses use the nursing process to provide care for individual patients or defined patient populations over a telecommunication device” (Stokowski, 2008).

Computer technology allows for nurses to facilitate care at a distance and although still in its transitioning phases, telehealth and telenursing will hopefully rectify the problem of the nation’s nursing shortage. The term ‘telenursing’ is not completely new. What was once the more popular ‘advice nurse’ or phone ‘triage nurse’, is now the new and improved telenurse. Telenursing allows for a nurse have real-time 2-way interaction with the patient. How effective can a nurse be if she cannot touch and/or feel her patient? Stokowski (2008) paints this picture: “Imagine if you had to assess your patients with your eyes closed and without using your hands and you will get an idea of the difficulty that telehealth nurses must overcome with every patient encounter”. One must keep in mind that the scope of practice for the telenurses is the same as the bedside nurse. The telenurses however, must heavily rely on knowledge, good judgment, evidence based practice, and information received from the patient to provide quality care; therefore, a telenurses requires continuous education to

It is not uncommon for a new mother to call the telenurse in regards to her child’s cough; in the case, we do not think twice. Surely, the infant cannot speak for himself and the mother is the caretaker, but what about the wife who calls in regards to her husband? One ethical dilemma a telenurse can experience is a conflict between the patient’s autonomy in the care of their health and the relative’s, as well as the nurses “ambition” to help the patient. (Stokowski, 2008). To avoid this, the telenurse must strive to always speak to the actual patient at all times; there is a thin line between help and respect.

Next is the dilemma of integrity and documentation. Say for instance a patient calls in and begins to give the nurse a list of symptoms, the telenurses’ decisions are based solely on the verbal information the caller gives. How can we ensure caller integrity? One should allow the patient to patient state their information (i.e. name, DOB, ID number); the telenurse not give out the information for them to verify. Stokowski, suggests that the telenurse be as restrictive as possible about information on previous illness and/or